OSAKA -- A man convicted of stabbing a 5-year-old girl to death during a series of random attacks in 1998 while he was a minor has dropped his damages suit against a publisher that had identified him in one of its magazines.
The man was quoted by his lawyer Wednesday as saying he "forgives" Shinchosha Co. for printing his name and photo in an edition of Shincho 45 in 1998, even though he was 19 at the time of the crime.
Anyone under 20 is considered a minor in Japan.
The case had been appealed to the Supreme Court after the Osaka High Court in February overturned an earlier district court decision awarding damages to the man.
The monthly magazine identified the man in its March edition, which hit the newsstands on Feb. 18, 1998. The man had been arrested on Jan. 8 for fatally stabbing the girl with a kitchen knife and injuring her mother and a high school student on a street in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture.